Immortal In The Pages

I'm in one of those weird moods where everything is just getting to me today.  One of the randomly weird things that popped in my head, was the death of a beloved book character.  I have found that the death, or even the ending of a book/series with a favorite character always gets to me.  Then I
reminded myself that even though a book may end, or a character may die...I can always go back and reread a story where they are alive and well.  For some reason today this did not make it any easier.  I don't know if the knowing that a character is gonna leave me changes the way I go back and read about them, or that I already know the whole story or what.  Anyways...not really sure where I am going with this.  I guess I'm just writing this to remind my self that as long as I keep reading, nothing every has to end and all my literary friends are essentially immortal.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Book Sandwich

This week kicks off the start to binging on every sort of food one can find for the next three months.  YAY!  To start us off I found this nifty little book.

This is an art piece/book by the artist Pawel Piotrowski and I absolutely love it!  Go check out the rest of his stuff too!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Two Souls One Body And Some Weird Voodoo

Hola Readers. Ready to start our October scare fest?  Found a new book by a new author called The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich.  I grabbed it 'cause the cover was cool, it involved mental health issues, and a potentially unreliable narrator...which when done right is one of my favorite things.  How did I like the book?  Read on to find out.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is written as a collection of culled bits and pieces from various media.  Mostly diary entries, video, and interview snippets.  We start off being told that there was a tragedy that happend at Elmbridge High School, a boarding school in England.  Over the course of a couple months multiple people have died or disappeared, culminating in a fire that left a couple more students dead and a few of them critically injured.  This book is meant to try and piece together what happened before the event.  We meet Kaitlyn, the alter identity of Carly the main character of our story.  Interestingly enough, even though Carly had her own part to play in the story, it is only Kaitlyn we hear from.  Kaitlyn's diary makes up most of the book along with her friend Naida's video diary and various interview snippets.  The gist of the story is that Carly was sent to a mental hospital following the death of her parents in some undisclosed tragedy (the term tragedy is going to be used quit a bit in this rambling, you have been warned).  Carly's therapist won' tell her what happend, rather hoping that Carly will remember on her own when she is ready.  We meet Kaitlyn, the supposed alter to ego to Carly in what their therapist has "dubbed" dissociative identity disorder.  The therapist thinks that the split happened after the accident, but Kaitlyn insists that she has always been their.  This is kind of confirmed when their little sister Jaime knows who Kaitlyn is.  Anyways, Carly is only present during the day and Kaitlyn is only present at night, neither aware of what the other experiences.  The two identities communicate through notes that they hide from the rest of the world.  Carly/Kaitlyn are allowed to go to Elmbridge, a boarding school that works with the hospital.  There they become friends with Naida, one of the few people who know about both personalities.  Naida is also very into some sort of Scottish voodoo.  Kaitlyn meets and falls in love with the mysterious and weird Ari, keeping him a secret from Carly.  One day Kaitlyn wakes up in the morning without Carly taking over.  This completely freaks Kaitlyn out which causes her to hurt herself sending her back to the hospital.  The therapist is surprised as it seems that Kaitlyn, not Carly is the "real" personality, but tries to convince her that she is still really Carly.  Kaitlyn freaks even more and wants Carly back.  Naida breaks Kaitlyn out of jail and hides her in the basement of the school.  Through out this whole time Kaitlyn refers to Dee in her diary, essentially giving her diary a name and personality.  Kaitlyn also experiences a malevolent voice, and hallucinations of an old decaying house she dubs the Dead House (hence the title of the book).  Naida decides that Kaitlyn and Carly are victims of dark magic and get's their friends in all kinds of dark Scottish voodoo to try and get Carly back. They determine that a dark magic worker has sent a demon to possess Carly/Kaitlyn and that it needs to be gotten rid of.  This does not work as planned and results in Naida cutting out her own tongue.  Naida's brother, a shaman comes to try and re-do the ritual the right way, they find out that somebody close to Kaitlyn is the bad guy.  Several bodies later it is revealed that Ari is responsible for sending the demon to possess the girls, because he felt that Carly and her friends were keeping Kaitlyn from living a full life.  We also find out that Kaitlyn is responsible for all the deaths due to the demon possessing her.  We also find out that Kaitlyn is responsible for her parents death as she grabbed the wheel and crashed the car on purpose after and argument with her father.  She told her friend John (a guy she met before the accident and one more body to add to the count) that she was glad they died and that it was the happiest day of her life.  We end the book with and interview with Carly/Kaitlyn's therapist leaning that she lost her licence and started a paranormal research lab on the remains of Elmbridge.  A transcription of a video reveals that Kaitlyn set herself and the school on fire and before she died a shadow could be seen joining her.  Carly/Kaitlyn's body was never found.  Elmbridge continues to be a site of paranormal research and mysterious disappearances.

World Building - This is a contemporary YA novel set mostly in a hospital and boarding school in England.  The world was fairly small, but very well built.  I could probably find my way to the ruined chapel, I could see the various rooms Kaitlyn was stuck in, the Dead House was sufficiently creepy and atmospheric.  As far as settings the world was pretty complete.

Story - I had some issues with the story.  It felt like a mismatch of a truly troubled individual who may or may not have at least one serious mental illness and some weird voodoo magic haunted stuff.  The story felt overloaded, convoluted and in all honesty felt like it never went anywhere.  There were several storylines that were alluded to but we never got back to them, like was Kaitlyn/Carly always a pair, or did they not appear until after the accident, was the school haunted or was that all Kaitlyn and her friends, how many malevolent entities are there and where did they all come from?  If the demon is responsible for all of Kaitlyn's killings then why did she kill her parent's long before she met Ari?  So many more questions and no answers.  It felt like the author had a thousand idea's and instead of really focusing on one or two she just crammed them all in there and hoped for the best...so yeah.

Character - Hmmm, so in some ways I really liked some of the characters.  Kaitlyn was at least interesting, even if she was a bit angsty...though to be fair she actually sounds like some people I know as an adult so even her angst was at least on point.  Naida was pretty cool, I liked her loyalty to both Carly and Kaitlyn, I liked her ability to go and get things done and just her attitude in general.  Scott and John were ok, Ari was fun until the very end when the story went weird...so eh on the characters I guess.

Editing - From a format perspective I thought this book was pretty cool.  The various snippets were fun and gave us multiple perspectives.  From a book stand point I thought some tighter editing would have been an asset.   As mentioned before, I felt that there were just waaaaaaay to many random stories thrown in, and I feel a good editor would have sat the author down and been like "hey chica, these are all great idea's but maybe write like three or four books and really explore them instead of mush them into one confusing mess".  I also felt like the various "twists" where thrown in willy nilly while at the same time the two main mysteries (the fire and the accident) where victims of the let's use ambiguity to stretch out the suspense until nobody cares.  I really felt the editor let this book and author down as far as continuity and readability.

Mental Illness - In some ways I like that this book is a potentially jumping off point for an open and frank discussion on mental illness, especially in young adults.  I feel this book tried to touch on very important topics such as medication, integration and diagnosing of this very real and very poorly understood group of illnesses.  The questioning of the therapists methods were a good reminder that we still need to work on legitimate ways to help people, while Kaitlyn's potentially destructive behavior towards herself and others makes us ponder the balance of personal freedom and the safety of the patient and those around them.  Unfortunately the shaky inclusion of the voodoo magic stuff with no real answer at the end of the book makes it seem that all of the potential realities of this were swept away with the answer of "oh she wasn't really crazy it was probably some voodoo demon so yeah".  I think I am even more disappointed because I have read some very well written books that meld potential mental health issues and the paranormal in a way that is very effective and to me this book did not deliver on that.

Magic - I think my main problem with the voodoo in this book ( to be fair the author did name it something specific...not voodoo...I just call it voodoo 'cause that is exactly what it sounds like) is that it is never even remotely explained.  The only real info I could glean from the book is that is is some sort of maybe Scottish magic and that it seriously resembles Creole voodoo.  We never get a clear picture of what it is or how it works even though it plays a huge part in the book.  Along with that we get a timeline that includes Kaitlyn hearing voices and seeing dead people...or zombies...or ghosts...or shadows or whatever long before she meets Naida.  I guess if some of what was going on was explained better and how SO MANY unrelated characters all knew about it and how to use it was plausible I would have been more willing to believe that it may have been influencing Kaitlyn.  There was a mention of potential mass hysteria and in all honesty if this had been explored a bit more I would have been much happier.

Carly/Kaitlyn - By far the most interesting part of this book for me was the Carly/Kaitlyn dynamic.  What was in the book was very intriguing and page turning.  The idea that the two of them considered themselves sisters, figured out a way to communicate, were aware of each other and would even ask each other favors.  I really really wanted to know more about their history, were they really both around before the accident?  Were they equal as two separate people in one body or was one of them a splintered personality.  Who was really the "real" person Carly or Kaitlyn.  It seems like there was so much story to mine here, so many twits and turns to navigate that I am sad that none of it made it into the story.  I feel like if we had been able to explore at least Kaitlyn as more then the troubled angsty alter ego we may have found some true horror in her all to human psychology.

Overall - I think my feelings have been made pretty clear on this particular book.  I really wanted to like it.  The format, the premise and the topics all seemed like they could be very very interesting but overall I feel this book gave me lots of tantalizing tidbits but ultimately did not deliver on any of them.  I give this book 5 out of 10 purple notes and have now been inspired to write a completely separate post on books I would like to author to rewrite.  I have noted that I am in the minority on my opinions on this book and feel that most teen's would probably very much enjoy it and that is a good thing.  For myself I feel like I ordered a gourmet grill burger and got a McDonald's little cheeseburger instead, it tastes all right but not what I wanted.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Messy Books

We all know that I am the ultimate bibliophile.  Oddly enough though most of my books are pretty messy and beat up.   I bring my books with me everywhere, to work, to vacation, to road trips, to the bathtub, to the pool...pretty much everywhere.  They get tossed in my back back, under my bed, the back of my truck.  I know a ton of fellow bibliophiles who would never dog ear a page and do their best to keep their books in pristine condition...yeah me, not so much.  I dog ear my pages, I write in
the margins and in the back of books all the time.  There are always drips of coffee or a splotch of rain.  I like my books messy though.  It reminds me of when and where I read them.  When I open up my book from our cruise I smell sea salt and coconut oil and am immediately taken back to a happy place.  My books are a part of my life, they go with me everywhere and I am not ashamed that they are as marked by my life as I am.  Now that being said, I do have some very special and very beautiful books that are cared for as if they are priceless treasures...which to me they are.  These however are the exception.  In summation my books are like me, used, traveled, messy and alive.  So if you ever stop by my bookshelves and start flipping through my books, look for the marks of life on them and know that these books have lived life along with their current owner.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Reading My Own Blog

Hi All!  I have a confession to make...I love to read my own blog.  I'm sure that makes me all sorts of narcissistic (which is a word I can surprisingly spell on the first try), but there you have it.  I remember when I first started writing this little blog and Hubbin and I went through other blogs trying to decide what I liked and didn't like about each blog and what features I wished each blog had.  After all of that I guess it makes sense that I made my blog into something that I wanted.  I like to read my own blog for various reasons, mostly 'cause it is a sort of ongoing reading journal of my life.  I like seeing my stuttering start and how my blog has evolved and hopefully improved over the years.  I like to see my rambling list grow.  I like to see what I was thinking about at any particular time.  Mostly I like to read my ramblings to catch myself up on various books I have read.  I have

gone back and read most of my ramblings and it always interests me how I decided to try and put into words how I felt about a particular book and weather that is how I still remember it.  I have noticed a couple of things as I have read back through my posts.  I have atrocious spelling, grammar and editing skills...seriously I should probably hire somebody to look at each post before it goes up, it is really bad sometimes.  I can usually tell what mood I am in by reading my posts.  I desperately want to go back and rewrite or delete numerous posts...but I'll leave them 'cause they are still a part of the whole.  I had a friend tell me she reads my blog when she misses me 'cause apparently I write like I talk...which explains a lot.   I realized that when I am in one of my weird moods, when I feel a little lost, I read my blog when I miss myself too.  It's kind of a touch stone when I start to lose myself to bigger things.  Anyways, there you have my self-centered take on my own writing, take from it what you will, but I am kind of proud and glad that I like my own blog and will continue to write it for as long as it brings me happiness.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Literal Decorative Books

So apparently you can buy/rent "decorative books" to make your house look like it is a super ritzy library type house.  The books are not really meant for reading, but to add a bit of "how awesome am I to have such a great looking library" to your home.  Now to be fair, this is usually used for set dressings where the look is important, but according to the site they do lots of private homes as well.

 I guess if I had a choice all my books would be pretty...I just want books I want to read, not just look at.  That being said, if you are looking for a way to swank up your library go to Bookdecor.com and you too can have a library if nothing else "looks" like it belongs to a collector of antiquities.  I will admit that the various collection this site has is stunning and beautiful...now if we could just figure out a way to take my existing books and make them look just as good.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Complications of Blended Families

Hi all, sorry for the insanely spotty posting...but life...so it will probably continue for at least another couple of weeks.  Anyways how about a quick rambling?  The nicer weather has made me pull out some of my graphic novels and Saga Volume II by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Fiona Staples was up to bat.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

When we last left our Romeo and Juliettesque little family they were hurtling through space on a wooden rocket ship (I want of of these SOOOOOO bad!) and had been visited/invaded by Marko's parents.  We learn a little bit about Marko's childhood on the moon Wreath and she his parents devotion to him and each other.  Upon arriving Marko's mother Klara banishes the ghost baby sitter Izabel to a local planetoid and Marko goes after her.  Marko's mother also decides to go after her son.  Alana and her newborn daughter are left with Barr, Marko's father.  After some hesitation on both sides, the two of them bond...mostly over little Hazel...but still start to warm to each other.  After some much needed sleep Alana discovers that Barr has used his considerable skills to make special cloths for the family.  He also reveals to Alana that he has only a very short amount of time to live and that he has told nobody else.  Back on the planetoid Marko and his mamma run into all kinds of fun trouble, but eventually recover Izabel...of course they also discover that the planetoid is actually a huge space egg with a deadly creature inside about to hatch.  Elsewhere in the universe many a folk are trying to hunt down our little family and especially their mixed daughter.  The Will (our intrepid freelancer) is still brooding over the death of his girlfriend The Stalk and his inability to rescue Slave Girl from her owners.  After several day dreams and refusal to continue his mission, Gwendolyn, a kick ass Wreath native...and Marko's infamous ex-fiancee...appears to motivate The Will.  She helps him find a way to rescue Slave Girl and convinces him to go after Marko and Alana.  This culminates in the wooden rocket ship being discovered and almost destroyed.  The ship is saved by Barr using the last of his strength to hold everything together, dying in the process of protecting his family. The Will and company are sent on their merry way...for the moment.  Also hot on the trail of our little mixed up family is the Prince Robot IV.  He is not allowed to go home until he has completed his mission of slaying Marko and Alana and bringing back the baby.  He has used his knowledge of the progression of the duo's relationship from prisoner and keeper to husband and wife and mother and father.  We as the lucky readers also get to watch this happen.  Essentially it is a book (so awesome) of disguised rhetoric of peace that brings them together.  Prince Robot IV discovers that the author of the book lives on the planet Quietus and surmises that the couple may end up there.  He go's and visits the author who though injured by the robot, covers the fact that the little family is already there.  This is where we end our story...for now.

Since the format of this is different from a "normal" book, I'm gonna use my original rambling format.  A lot of what I loved in the first volume of this story remains in this second volume.  I love watching the pair, and especially Alana deal with the realities of new parenthood while also trying to travel, survive and still have a "meet the parents" moment.  Learning more of the pairs history, especially Marko's really starts to give the family feel of this story some good strong roots.  Finding out some more of the details of Marko and Alana's relationship was also a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed the character of Gwendolyn and how she wasn't some bitch pining away for her man, but instead just wanted her stuff back so she could move on with life.   The Will continued to show both his brutal side and his soft side, sometimes in conflict with each other to make him our freelancer with a heart of gold.  The other thing I really liked about this installment of the series was how they showed the toll that this never ending war was taking on the rest of the galaxy.   Various species on multiple worlds are drafted into either side of the war through no choice of their own, but the whims of whatever army got there first.  Some species thrive and have become an interagal part to the Wreath and Landfall people.  Others are pressed into service or killed wholesale in the name of a people that they have never seen and have no real right to push this war and it's horrors on them.  We see a universe of wonder and variety and amazement that is becoming tired and weary and just about done.  I think this is great because a) this is a reality even now in our real lives and b) sets up so many options for future volumes.  I continue to enjoy this series and it's mix of fantasy, sci fi and domestic bliss...or what passes for it when you haven't slept in 96 hours.  I can't wait to continue this series and give it 7 out of 10 bad romance novels.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Earth VS Mars VS The Belt

Hola Readers, sorry for the lack of posting, but 110 hours in 8 days on an ambulance makes this little bookworm a wee bit exhausted.  I have however gotten some sleep and finished an awesome book so lets ramble for a bit shall we?  The book is Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey...which is actually the pen name of two authors by the names of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  It is the first book in the Expanse series which is a pretty epic story in space.  My Mamma recommended it and as always she knows what I like.  Let's dive right into it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is pretty much divided between the perspectives of Detective Miller and Captain Holden.  Each chapter switches between the two characters and is labeled as such and makes the reading experience very clear and concise.  Before all that though we start with a proloug in which we meet Julie.  Julie appears to be a prisoner and we watch her escape onto an empty ship where she makes a horrifying discovery of her entire crew and her captors turned into a weird pile of sludge and still living body parts...pretty blechy if you ask me.  She makes her escape and our story starts.  On Ceres station, in an area of space called The Belt, Detective Miller is tasked with finding Julie Mao, the daughter of a wealthy business family who has run away to join the OPA (Outer Planet Alliance) a loosely formed group that runs the gamet between an advocacy group and out and out terrorists.  Essentially people who live outside the inner planet area (mostly Mars and Earth) feel that they are discriminated against by the inner planet folk.  I could really write pages about the politics, but I think this is enough for the current story.  Detective Miller starts his research and he and the reader start to get to know Julie through various means as he searches for any sign of her.  Meanwhile on a ship called the Canterbury XO Holden takes a group of people to check out a ship called the Scopuli which is giving off a distress signal.  While exploring a mysterious force destroys the Canterbury leaving Holden and his crew (Naomi, Alex, Amos and Shed) as the remaining survivors.  Holden makes a discovery that the equipment used to send the fake distress signal was of Martian origin and he sends out a broadcast to the universe to that affect.  This essentially sets of a war between the OPA and Mars.  Holden and his crew then begin a series of moves and discoveries that eventually coincide with Detective Miller and his search for Julie.  Holden and his crew end up on a station that specializes in construction and is run by Fred Johnson, a former military hero turned OPA leader in a "commandeered" ship that the crew now call their own.  They ally with Fred as he is willing to be reasonable and utilize his resources to get to the bottom of the whole mystery.  Eventually the crew meets up with Detective Miller on Eros station where they finally find the body of Julie Mao...after a pretty bloody fire fight.  The body is growing weird growths of various shapes, sizes and textures.  After this discovery, the station goes into lock down and the inhabitants are herded into various "safe" zones.  Miller and Holden get separated and discover that the lock down is just a ploy to get the people gathered so that this mysterious group can experiment on them...without their knowledge of course.  After much stuff and things we finally discover that an Earth cooperation had discovered a block of ice embedded with an alien virus that was meant to rewrite DNA long before humans came along.  The cooperation wants to find a way to modify the virus to rewrite human DNA for various means.  The cooperation is ended, but they are still left with the problem of Eros.  Video and audio feeds from Eros reveal a horror show of growths, human remains acting in unnatural ways, and the station itself reacting to all attempts to destroy it.  Eventually Miller realizes that Julie is still alive in some form and that the virus is using her experiences and mind to do its dreadful work.  Miller boards the station and makes his way through the haunting and terrifying situation to find what is left of Julie and convinces her to crash the station on Venus, a planet that is still inhabitable by humans.  There the virus starts to rework the planet.  The rest of the human inhabited universe learns what is going on and goes back to some semblance of normalcy and Holden and his crew fly off to further adventures.  Obviously a very abbreviated version of a fairly complex book, but it's the gist of the story if nothing else.

World Building - This book is set apx 200 years in the future, in a combination of space, ships, stations and planets.  The authors did a fantastic job in setting up a complex and sweeping universe without boring the crap out of anybody.  The "science" of things felt plausible, which for me is always a plus as when things get tossed in with no sense it takes me out of the world.  It was not overly explained, nor was information withheld just to try and up the tension.  I felt like I had a good grasp of the asthetics, politics, and society of this books worlds. While reading it was easy to get immersed in the world as it unfolded in a natural and complete way.  World building gets an A+++++ from me :-)

Story - I loved the story put forth in this book.  With all of the complex politics and world building it would be very easy to loose the story in all of the details that the author could have piled on us.  Instead we get a clear, engaging mystery that has a beginning, middle and end while still leaving tons of room for future stories.  I am always impressed, especially in hard core sci fi and an author(s) can produce a readable story that is as fresh and original as this one.  I think the fact that the authors pulled in elements of noir, horror, mystery and a the perfect amount of humor really brought this story into the realm of a great read.  In the end we are left with an intriguing mystery that has just the right amount of twists and reveals that also lets us learn about the characters and the universe.  Good show guys good show.

Characters - The characters of this book were spot on.  Each main character was full developed with their own stories, belief's, moral code and attitude.  I felt like I could walk up to any of them and know exactly who they were.  The interactions between the characters was superb, with each interaction adding to the story and the picture of each character.  Miller and Holden's interactions were my favorite as the authors used them to show both sides of almost every situation.  They would have discussions and arguments and by the time they were done, you could at a minimum agree that they both had valid points.  I love this because it made the book feel balanced and fair and that the authors were not trying to shove any sort of agenda down your throats.  I also liked how every character stayed in character...what I mean is nobody did anything wildly out of character just to further the story.  Character rocked it.

Editing - The way the book was set up, with each chapter focusing on a specific character that we got to know very well was the perfect format for this book.  It was easy to follow, engaging and we got all the information we needed to understand exactly what was going on.  Sometimes in these epic sagas I have to flip back a couple pages to make sure I understand what I am reading, but this book flowed so smoothly.  Considering that two separate authors worked on this book, makes this feat even more amazing.  Go editors!

Language - The use of language in this book added a lot to the clarification and understanding of the various places in the universe.  For instance the Belters have their own lingo, stringing together words and phrases in a way that would only make sense to a native.  The closer to the inner planets you get the more refined the language becomes.  The characters also have a habit of giving names to things they have never seen before.  My personal favorite is vomit zombies, which is what they call the inhabitants of Eros station that have been infected by the alien virus.  It has got to be one of the most descriptive yet simple labels I have ever heard and I now use it in my everyday vernacular.  Each character also has a distinct voice that the authors wrote to reflect each particular individuals background and life.  Overall the language of this book was used to enhance the world building to a very effective degree.

Julie Mao - I'm gonna give this character her own space 'cause for all that she is only physically present in the book for a couple of pages, her existence is pretty much the whole basis for this book.  I found it brave and interesting that the actions of this girl, who made choices and decisions that any of us would have made are pretty much the catalyst for so many things in this book.  I also like how well we got to know her as a person and how the characters also got to know her in their own ways.  This is all very crucial near the end, when this feeling of knowing...and in Detective Millers case, loving Julie, leads to the understanding of how the virus is controlling the station.  Julie is very much a present character through out the entire story despite her pretty much being dead from the beginning. She is important to us not only in the beginning, but through out the book as she becomes part of each step of the mystery and in particular what she becomes to Detective Miller.  It is a great way to add a bit of an unusual twist to the story.

TV Show - The Syfy channel has attempted to make this into a tv show called The Expanse and in all honesty it's not bad.  My biggest issue with it is that after the clear and directness of the book, the tv show actually feels overly complicated...which is weird 'cause usually I'm upset because they over simplify things.  That being said the show really tried hard, and in most cases succeeded in showing us the various places in the universe and their disparate societies.  It is visually stunning and the casting is pretty well done.  I know they are trying to get the politic and such across...I just wish they had stuck to the cleaner format.  I will however be watching the next season so there is that.

Overall Impression - In case you hadn't figured it out, I really enjoyed this book.  It is everything I want a science fiction book...well any book really to be.  It avoided many of the pitfalls that these sweeping epics tend to fall into and left me with a very readable, very enjoyable, very good book.  I am desperately hoping this quality keeps up through out the series and will without a doubt be picking up the next book. I give this book 8 out of 10 textured fungus skewers and recommend it to any fan of science fiction, epics, or just a great combination of story, world building and character.
Happy Reading Everybody!

What Did I Just See On The Bookshelf ?!?

I am in a really weird mood right now...a whole bunch of bourbon and S'mores may have a wee bit to do with it...but anyways...what was I saying...Oh yeah!  To celebrate my mood of weirdness here are a couple of the weirdest books I have ever seen on a bookshelf (DISCLAIMER I have not actually read these so they may be awesome...).

What's Your Poo Telling You?

With expert advice on everything from the color to the "floatiness" of your poo, you will be completely covered in the feces area...bonus activity book sold separately (no seriously, there is an activity book!)

The Pantyhose Craft Book

To be honest I don't even remember the last time I wore pantyhose...much less made a windcatcher out of them...

How to Sharpen Pencils

Because apparently we have all been doing it the wrong way?

The Beginner's Guide to Sex in the Afterlife

For those of us who can't bear the thought of going without...even after we have shuffled off this mortal coil.

Be Bold With Bananas

So many ways to go with this...so many innuendo's...so much weird!

Ok I'm sure you have all had more then enough of my weirdness today...so just go ahead and tell me the weirdest book that you have ever read/seen.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Alternate Exploration

If you go through my rambling list I am sure you will notice that my favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy.  I think one of the best thing about these genre's is their ability to explore real world issues without "offending the masses".  Ok reading that it sounded a little bit pretentious and snotty...let me see if I can try this again.  Sometimes when an author tries to to write about a legitimate issue, too much political correctness tends to overshadow the message they are trying to get across.  In science fiction and fantasy we can create whole worlds, governments, races, societies and situations just to address a specific (or in really good books several) issues that may be a bit

sticky to tackle in a real world.  In fantasy we see old school epic kingdoms play out human history with people and countries that don't exist.  In science fiction our fears and questions of the future are played across worlds.  The addition of magical and/or alien races give us a group of people that we can apply stereotypes to...then hopefully destroy them without the message getting lost in cultural appropriation, whitewashing, and other problems that plague certain mainstream novels.  In these imaginary spaces we as humans feel more comfortable exploring the things that make us uncomfortable in the real world.  We can explore why these issues and problems exist, ask the questions that maybe don't have answers, and offer possible solutions that we can work out in the sandbox of imagination.  I have read many older science fiction and fantasy books that set forth idea's that during their publication time were weird or out there and are now taken for granted as normal.  I hope I am getting my point across here.  I'm not trying to do anything other then point out that along with all the other wonderful genre's science fiction and fantasy allow us to truly explore our real world in a way that may not be possible in real time.  Ok enough philosophizing and back to reading.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Wonka's Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight

Usually when I need to give my brain a break I go to my childhood favorites.  This time I picked up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  This book has always appealed to me for many reasons, not the least of which is the idea of endless chocolate.  Ready to go on a wild ride?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Charlie Bucket is a very poor boy who lives with his parents and his four bed bound Grandparents in a tiny drafty house.  They subsist mostly on cabbage soup with the occasional bite of bread.  They are a loving family though and do there best to help each other survive.  Grandpa Joe tells little Charlie the story of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory that had to shut its doors to the public due to all the spying going on.  Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that one day the factory started up again, with mysterious workers helping Wonka produce sweet wonders...but the gates remained closed and locked.  One night an announcement goes out that in five random Wonka chocolate bars are golden tickets that will allow a person into the Wonka factory.  Obviously the world is vary excited and a run on chocolate bars ensues.  The first person to find a golden ticket is the gluttonous Agustus Gloop, a little boy who won't stop eating.  Next is the very spoiled Veruca Salt who obtained her ticket when her father paid his peanut shellers to open candy bars instead.  Charlies birthday happens and he gets his traditional chocolate bar which sadly contains no golden ticket.  The third ticket goes to the annoying, gum chewing Violet Beauregarde and the fourth to the television and violence obsessed Mike Teavee.  Grandpa Joe figures out a way to get Charlie another chocolate bar, which again holds no ticket.  Mr. Bucket loses his job at the toothpaste factory and the family begins to starve.  Charlie finds a dollar bill on the way home and uses it to buy chocolate (smart boy) he wolfs it down and buys another and lo and behold GOLDEN TICKET!  The long anticipated day arrives and the five winners along with their parents (except Charlie who just brings Grandpa Joe) arrive at the factory to meet the mysterious Willy Wonka.  They are greeted by a funny little man in a green had and purple velvet coat who promptly brings them inside the wondrous factory.   The first stop is my personal favorite, a huge meadow area where EVERYTHING is edible and made of candy! How cool is that ?!?  The best part is the chocolate river running through it.  Here we lose our first winner when Augustus Gloop falls into the river while drinking the chocolate and is sucked up the pipe.  Here we also meet the Oompa Loompa's, small weird colored guys who sing mean, yet insightful songs about our wayward winners.  The remaining people get into a fantastic boat and go hurtling down the chocolate river past many tantalizing doors stopping in an experimental room where our next child leaves us.  The gum chewing Violet grabs an experimental piece of gum and turns into a giant blueberry.  New up the nut sorting squirrles who decide Veruca is a bad nut when she try's to get her greedy little hands on one, bye bye Veruca.  We are now down to Mike TeaVee and Charlie Bucket.  Mike requests something TV related and Wonka takes them to a room where he is transmitting chocolate by radio waves to televisions.  Mike gets himself miniaturized when he jumps in front of the camera to get on TV.  We are now left with just sweet Charlie Bucket and his grandfather.  Willy Wonka then reveals that the whole point of the competition was to find an heir to his factory.  He offers it to Charlie, telling him the whole family can move in.  The book ends with Wonka telling Charlie to press a special button on the glass elevator that hurls them to Charlies home where they pick up his family to start a better life.

World Building - The book is a semi-fantastical novel mostly set in this awesome chocolate factory.  The world is fairly contained and more hinted at then shown.  There is a huge scope for people to fill in details and use their imagination to make the factory anything they want it to be.  My favorite spot is the meadow and chocolate river as it makes my imagination explode.

Story - The main story was pretty straight forward, a cautionary tale for children.  This is the type of story that tells you if you behave you can inherit a chocolate factory :-)  It also had a good punch of humor and straight up crazy which is always a plus for me.  Keeping in mind that this is an old school MG book I think the story kept a good balance between cheeky and a morality tale.

Character - The main characters were all pretty stock style characters, but this was done on purpose to illustrate a point, so I will give the kids a pass on this one.  I do however love Veruca Salt not for any real reason, I just do.  I also really enjoy Grandpa Joe's spunkyness and his ability to take quiet Charlie on this great adventure.  Of course my absolute favorite character is Willy Wonka. Just his name makes me smile, but what I really love is his sheer eccentricness.  He is the perfect mix of creative, dreamy, responsible, compassionate, logical and bat sh*t crazy.  I love everything about him.

Editing - This was a pretty simple and straight forward book told in a simple and straight forward way.  Not a lot to say about the editing other then it was fine.  Also there a bunch of really weird, scary yet fitting illustrations by Quentin Blake that add the perfect touch to this book.

Parents - The children in this book all had very obvious flaws that caused their downfall, but what I thought was interesting and very cool was that the book was very clear that the reason the children had gotten as bad as they were was the fault of the parents.  We see multiple times where the parents could have brought their precious darlings to heel, but instead indulged and defended them.  It's good to know that the author at least knew where bad kids come from...bad parents.  In contrast Charlie's family was responsible and loving and had trained Charlie so well he didn't even need his parents at factory, instead he go his spunky Grandpa Joe.

Imagination - I like how this book inspires imagination.  There are a couple well explained rooms and candies, but most are just hinted at.  I like this because it gives the reader a chance to imagine what all the different things could be, or look like, or taste like.  The lay out of the book also hints at almost endless possibilities, making this a great book to read with your kids or nephews and nieces or whoever because it leaves a ton of open ended conversations.  Even the "punishments" that the naughty kids get are creative, and in the end not permanent.

Movies - I can't mention this book without talking about the movies.  There is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder as the title character, and the later Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp at Willy Wonka.  Now I adore Johnny Depp and I know that to some degree Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is more faithful to the book, but I mostly find it a tad too creepy for my taste.  The Gene Wilder version on the other hand is one of my favorite movies ever!  While it definitely does not follow the book word for word it most definitely keeps the spirit of the book to the fullest extant.  It will probably come as no surprise to anybody that my favorite scene is the World of Pure Imagination song/scene.  Also I feel that Gene Wilder captures the person of Willy Wonka perfectly.

Overall Impression - I very much enjoy this book, I feel it is entirley age appropriate, not overly complicated or angsty and is perfect for reading with a younger person.  I feel it encourages conversation and imagination and pretty much recommend it to everybody.  I give it 8 out of 10 everlasting gobstoppers and am now going to go watch the movie and eat some chocolate.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!

Schizobookia

Hello all,  I would like to bring an issue to your attention.  It is the private shame of many a voracious reader and I think it is high time we brought this sickness to light.  Yes folks, I am talking about Schizobookia.  I am suffering from a bout of Schizobookia and want to let others know that they don't suffer alone.  Wait...what?  You have never heard of Schizobookia?  Seriously?  Schizobookia is when a reader starts a book, gets 10 or so pages in can't focus and then picks up a different book, and then a different book and then buys a ton more books and then starts those books and then finds a book she forgot she had and then starts that one as well.

The result is books all over the place with bookmarks and dog ears stuck in various states of unreadness and nothing actually getting finished. This is compounded by cantgetenoughbookitis in which the reader is continually acquiring books that just feed the Schizobookia.  I'm not quit sure what the cure is, but I need to find it and fast or I will be so overwhelmed by barely started book that I just might drown.  I have heard that actually finishing a book is considered a pretty sure fire treatment so I'm gonna go see if I can't buckle down and focus.  Happy Reading Everybody!

One Messed Up Christmas

I decided to start of my Christmas reading this year with something a bit on the irreverent side...ok... a lot on the irreverent side.  I had been feeling a wee bit stressed and just wanted something that  required little thought and a bit of relief.  To this end I picked up The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore.  Did it give me the holiday break I needed?  Let's find out, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First things first, this is not a family tale of magic and wonder, it is the complete opposite and has a fair amount of all the stuff that makes a book rated R so you have been warned.  Pine Cove, California is a picturesque town that is still small enough to be considered charming to outsiders.  The denizens of this town are varied and a bit...well...crazy.  The main players in our tale are Dale, an "evil" and developer, his ex-wife Lena, Tucker a free-lance helicopter pilot and his fruit bat Roberto with a thing for Lena, Mavis the old broad of a bar tender (with a penchant for spiking her fruitcake), Theo a pot-head constable and his certifiable wife Molly who when she off her meds morphs into Kendra Warrior Babe, complete with sword wielding prowess.  Lena and Dale get into it one night, resulting in Lena accidentally killing him with a shovel.  Little Josh see's this and as Dale is dressed as Santa, his little child mind thinks that Santa is now dead.  Meanwhile the angel Raziel (who must have whatever form of ADD angels can have) has been tasked with fulfilling the Christmas wish of one child.  In between consuming human treats Raziel wanders over to the chapel that is hosting the Lonesome Christmas party where most of the town has gathered.  Taking the wish literally, Raziel raises all the dead in the area so that "Santa" will be alive.  This results in the dead coming back as very interesting zombies and terrorizing the party.  All sorts of crazy hell breaks loose which I cannot even begin to describe.  Little Josh freaks out and tells the angel he just wants everything to go back to how it was.  Poof, the angel grants the Christmas wish and all is well.

The book itself is a completely twisted mish-mash of personal stories interwoven with the main one, making it impossible to really sum up, but that is part of its charm.  The book was fun, violent, weird, crude, vulgar, silly, insane, but fun.  It is the type of book one reads when they are in that weird sort of mood for a tale that makes your life seem normal in comparison.  This book will make even the most messed up of holiday's seem sane in comparison.  Besides all of the weirdness and un-PCness, the author still managed to keep the gist of the holiday spirit through out the book.  The entire time I was reading, I got the sense that the people of Pine Cove were trying their hardest to be good people and to ensure their friends and family were doing ok regardless of what was going on. The characters were the best part of the book. each one having their own quirky past and interesting present.  I will forever have a soft spot for my schizophrenic Molly/Warrior Babe and I will probably read more of this authors books just to read more of her.  There is really not much more I can say about it other then if you like this sort of book, it fits in wonderfully for a little bit of a saucy holiday read.  I give it 7 out of 10 lasagna's and recommend it to anybody who likes something a bit different and does not get offended even moderately easily.  Happy Reading Everybody!

More Strange Children

Hola, after a day full of Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts, I thought I would take a break and do a quick non-holiday related rambling.  I had finished Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (the second book in the Peculiar Children series) a while ago and totally forgot to ramble about it so here we go.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

When we left our peculiar children they were fleeing the collapse of their time loop due to the interference of the scary hollowgasts.  They are traveling with their caretaker Miss Peregrine who is trapped in bird form. Emma (the girl who can produce fire) and our main guy Jacob (the boy can feel/see the hollowgast) continue to act as leaders to our ragtag band of misfits.  After a bad storm they lose almost all their belongings but manage to retain their copy of the book The Tales of the Peculiar which turns out to be able to guide them to various areas.  They use it to travel to the Menagerie, a hidden loop populated by peculiar animals (and my favorite part of the book).  Here they learn that Miss Wren, this loops caretaker has gone to London to try and combat the hollowgast invasion.  The kids leave Fiona (the plant growing girl) and Claire (the girl with the mouth in the back of her head) at the menagerie so that Claire can recover from an illness.  Meanwhile Emma, Jacob and the rest of the kids, Bronwyn (super strong), Millard (invisible boy), Olive (lighter then air) Horace (has prophetic visions), Enoch (can animate the dead) and Hugh (controls bees that live in his stomach) continue on to London.  They end up with a Gypsy band that risks themselves to help the children once they realize they are peculiars, as they have a close relationship to them historically.  Using their help they hop on a train and find the loop to 1940s London...right in the middle of World War II.  During their travels they run into a pair of sisters, one of which is a peculiar herself (it is her we see on the cover of the book) who pretty much gives the kids a hard time for their attitude towards supposed "non-peculiars" and declines their invitation to join them.  The kids hook up with a reluctant Melina a peculiar who can work with the peculiar pigeons that lead them to the next step in their journey.  They also join a pair of brothers who are very peculiar and very much do not like to be split up.  The intrepid group end up in a loop that features a circus, which as one can imagine has all kinds of peculiars in it.  They are brought to an iced in building, which turns out to be a sort of un-official-official headquarters of the peculiars and has been under siege by the hollowgasts.  They finally find Miss Wren who agree's to help them turn Miss Peregrine back to a human.  While this process is going on, Emma convinces Jacob that he needs to go home and be with his family.  Miss Peregrine is finally returned to human form, but much to the shock and horror of the whole group, it is not Miss Peregrine that emerges, but Caul, her brother who tricked the kids into traveling with him so he could finally catch the last of the guardians.  There is mass chaos and the majority of the group is captured.  The book ends with Jacob back in his present calling his father and finding out he is able to control the hollowgast.

I realized as I read this book that it had been a couple of years between reading the first book and this one and had to go back and get the gist of the first book so the second one would make sense.  Where the first book felt original and fresh, a lot of this book felt like the author was trying to fit it in with the pictures he had (weird and awesome pictures feature prominently into this book as they did in the last one.).  In the first book, the photo's were actually part of the story, with Jacob finding them in his grandfathers collection, and more at the destroyed orphanage, they felt more integrated to the story.  In this book the photo's were used for strictly illustration purposes.  I personally felt that much of the book was their as a reason to show the photo's instead of the photo's furthering the story.  I also felt the story was a bit disjointed and hard to follow, I kept wanting a guide to how the peculiar world worked...but that may have also been 'cause I don't remember the first book all that well.  On the plus side I LOVED the idea that a book of "tales" actually had hidden information and the fact that the bird was Caul and not Miss Peregrine was actually surprising were both pretty cool.  I continue to love the personality of some of the peculiar children and the way Hugh used his bee's to save the group made me smile.  The book was okay, and I suspect as I finish the series I will appreciate it more as a whole then as any single book (at least I hope so).  If nothing else, the photo's make for very cool and pretty visuals.  I give this book 6 out of 10 iron shoes and recommend it to anybody who read the first one and wants to know what happens next.  Hopefully it will be a shorter interval between the next books and the rambling will come soon.  Side note, if this post is incoherent it's 'cause Hubbin thought it would be a good idea to drink a couple glasses of wine and three shots of rum before writing this...so...yeah.  Happy Reading Everybody!

What Nightmares Are Made Of

I just finished what is either one of the coolest books, or the most frustrating books ever.  What is this book that inspires such conflicting feelings? More Than This by Patrick Ness is a book that has been sitting in my e-reader tbr pile for a long time, along with a bunch of other books by this author.  I have heard lots of good things about this guy, and the yellow door on the cover of this book made it the one I picked up.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD, and by spoilers I mean ALL the SPOILERS so if you ever plan on reading this book, read it first and then read this post, because a huge part of this book is the not knowing so again, you are warned SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is broken into four parts, each one changing the mood and direction of the story.
Prologue - We start the book with a boy drowning.  He is in a cold sea and though he struggles to stay alive, in the end the ocean wins and after slamming the boy against the rocks he dies.
Part 1 - The boy, who's name is Seth wakes up confused, scared and in pain.  He stumbles around trying to make sense of the fact that he is seemingly alive, even though he can remember drowning.  After finally getting his bearings, he realizes he is in his old childhood home in England, even though he and his family moved to America years before.  He discovers that his house and the whole town have been completely abandon for at least a couple of years.  There is no signs of life anywhere and everything is falling apart.  He falls asleep and has super vivid dreams of his past, both childhood and recent.  This happens through out this part of the book and we find out two major events in his life.  The first being when he was about 8 and living in this home, his mother left him and 4 year old brother home alone for a few minutes.  While she was gone, an escaped prisoner from the prison behind their home convinced Seth to let him in.  The prisoner kidnaps his little brother Owen and though he is finally recovered, he needs a lot of therapy.  This results in the family moving to Washington state and Seth feeling like they blame him for Owen's issues.  The other big event is after he and his friend Gudmund fall in love, a picture of the two of them is leaked and they are forced apart by Gudmund's parents.  Seth becomes a pariah at school and it is all too much for him.  In between these vivid dreams, Seth finds all the supplies he needs to survive.  He also discovers a weird dusty coffin in his old room with tubes and stuff inside.  At this point Seth decides that this is his own personal Hell and that it is his punishment.  He goes a bit crazy and starts running through the ruined town and sees a black van driving around.

Part 2 - Just as Seth starts to go to the van, he is pulled into a cave by a pair of kids Regine, a girl about his age and Tomasz a kid around 12.  They tell him that they are the only others here, and the person in the van, who they call The Driver and he kills anybody he comes across.  Seth is understandably reluctant to trust these two, but agrees to go with them.  They go to Seth's house where they are pursued by the Driver and narrowly escape.  Seth takes them to the grocery store he found and they collect food.  Seth insists that they tell him what they know, and after a whole ton of back and forth and interruptions, they finally tell him.  Their theory is that the world went bad and everybody connect themselves online to live.  They think the coffins are essentially lifepods that keep them alive while they are connected.  Seth immediately comes up with all kinds of problems with this theory.  He wonders why if they live in an artificial world, that all of their lives suck so bad in it.  He also wonders where all the other coffins are, and where the technology came from.  The other two do not have answers, but at the moment it is the best theory they have. Seth goes to the prison and discovers a very high tech area that contains the coffins.  He searches for his parents and finds them, but can't find his brother.  The Driver comes in and puts him in a coffin, trying to reattach him, but he is again miraculously saved by his new friends.  He tells them he now knows what happens but needs to process the info.  When he wakes up the next morning it is all clear.
Part 3 - Seth runs to a church where he finds a graveyard and his brothers grave.  Turns out his brother was not recovered, but instead he was murdered by the escaped convict.  After being told this, an official type person tells his parents about Lethe, a program that lets you forget your former life and restart in the online world.  Unfortunately their is only so much they can do to alter the brain so while they can get Owen "back" they cannot erase all the events, thus the story of his kidnapping and recovery.  The official tells them eventually everybody will be forced online because the state of the world is in such bad shape. They agree and are put online.  This seems to confirm the theory that Regine and Tomasz came up with, but something is still bugging Seth.  He feels like everything is unfolding like a story, that he keeps getting rescued, just in time, or he finds just the supplies he needs, he is having a hard time completely accepting the present reality. He theorizes that while the online reality may be true, this might also be a way for his mind to deal with death, or maybe an alien experiment, or, well who knows.
Part 4 - Seth decides that now that he has the truth, he is going to go back into the coffin before his death, not die, and tell all the onliners the truth.  Regine and Tomasz are against it at first, but end up supporting him.  On their way back to Seth's house to use his coffin, he has a feeling that even though they have defeated the Driver, if this was a story, he would appear one last time.  Sure enough, the melted, twisted body of the Driver appears and essentially all but kills Seth and then brings him back to life before being disintegrated by Tomasz in one more miraculous save.  Seth decides it doesn't matter if this is real or not, he has to do something and to try and live the best he can.  He gets into the coffin saying to his friends "I'm ready".

Whew talk about you long synopsis, and as always I did not even get more then the bare bones of it down.  Let's start with what really stuck with me about this book.  The first thing is the way the author wrote the first death scene and the part about Seth waking up.  I have to tell you folks, the way these were written really feels like nightmares I've actually had.  I had the same terrifying, queasy, trapped feeling I get when I have nightmares, it was really a work of authorial art.  It's really hard to describe why this whole first part made me so happy and yet so freaked out at the same time, but there you have it.  The flashback were cool because they felt so real and authentic.  The part with Seth and Gudmund could have come from almost any high school relationship, that angst, that falling so hard with no restraint, that feeling that this is the one good thing in your life.  The part with the high school turning into a nightmare after the pictures got out is unfortunately all to understandable to, and for a gay couple it would be all the worse (which is so unfair).  The parental reactions on both sides to the relationship came across true, with one set freaking out in a complete homophobic manner and the other set, more concerned about the problems it will cause.  The flashbacks about

Owen and the family falling apart around the events that happened are actually fairly accurate.  I have worked a lot in foster care and the medical field and unfortunately events such as this often come with a family never learning how to cope.  Seth working his way through both of these events in his life, figuring out what they really mean in the context of himself and other people was a great study in individual human thought process.  The open ended ending was superb.  I hate books that build up to a big reveal and then bam, a "what the heck was that" ending with a ton of questions that don't make sense.  Ending the book in this way, the author acknowledges that there is a bunch of stuff that doesn't make sense, and in all honesty there is probably no one ending that would satisfy all the questions and elements posed.  Really the only thing I did not like about this book was its length.  Many time, especially in the second part it felt like the author was dragging things out, that Regine could have filled Seth in anytime, but a bunch of bs reasons, or random events stopped her from talking, or something else to prevent Seth (and us) from knowing basic stuff.  Hmmm...now that I'm thinking about it, maybe that was part of Seth's brain trying to come up with an explanation...or the program hiding info...or...Ahhh this book is so frustrating and awesome!  Ok now that this post is going on a zillion pages I'm gonna wrap it up.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 cans of custard and recommend it to anybody who survived high school, likes a book that will make you think, or enjoy's a read that mixes genre's.  I will definitely be reading another one of these guy's books.
How do you feel about ambiguous endings?  What ending do you think is the real one?  Is this finally a way to give me an ending I don't have a huge problem with?

The End Is Here...Kind Of

For Christmas I got my sweet Hubbin the book Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton.  It is a combination sci-fi/adventure/puzzle/mass media game book that was...well...hmmm...yeah.  This is not going to be a typical rambling as the authors have asked people not to spoil it, and also it is so disjointed it doesn't really lend itself to a typical synopsis, but I'll do my best to give you at least the flavor of what is going on.

The basic premise of the book is this.  Back in the beginning of humanity, aliens came and picked 12 lines of humans to keep a line of what is called Players going.  The Players have to be between a certain age and physically fit.  They train in physical prowess, code breaking, puzzle solving languages and such all in anticipation of the day that Endgame will begin.  Endgame is the day when the aliens who first picked the 12 decide that humanity is no longer worthy of living and will pretty much destroy everybody.  The only people who will ultimately survive are the people who belong to the line of the winner.  In the book we eventually meet all 12 Players from all over the globe, who all have different backgrounds and training.  Near the beginning 12 meteors come crashing down around the world, killing off a ton of people, all to deliver a rock to the Players to let them know that Endgame has started.  The Players all gather in China and the alien Keplar-22 does his spiel and gives them all a clue in their heads.  The players all scatter to solve the clues, deal with family history, and just cause mayhem in general.  The book ends with one of the players getting the first key and moving on to somewhere in anticipation of the next book.  Through out the book are clues and websites that the reader is supposed to solve.  This extends far past the book into various media sites and research and various codes and such to solve.  The reader who solves the whole puzzle first wins a pretty big cash prize, so that is pretty cool.

I read this book in a different way then I normally do...in fact I didn't read it at all, Hubbin read it to me.  This was fun for two reasons.  One Hubbin has a very soothing voice and it is very very relaxing to listen to him read.  Two, this book was horribly written, so to spice it up, I would "interpret" what the book should have really said...with the occasional "I'm Batman" thrown in for fun.  The book really was written in a very simplistic, broken up, stilted manner that made it almost painful to read.  Every sentence.  Was three or four.  Words long.  And periods were.  The only.  Punctuation. Hubbin thought this might be part of the code, but the WHOLE book was written this way and it was very very very annoying.  I also felt a bit gyped on some of the characters.  There were 12 Players and while we got glimpses of all of them, only about 5 were really focused on and of those 1, the incredibly annoying Sarah Alopay was given at least half the book.  Of all 12 Players, she was the least interesting, most annoying, typical perfect All-American girl that absolutely no originality to her what so ever.  Some of the other characters seemed to have some cool stuff going for them, but I'm not sure because they would get a page for ever 5 of Sarah's.  The puzzles themselves are WAAAAAY over my head, they seem overly complicated and at times completely random.  That is what I have Hubbin for, he is very good at this kind of stuff and has the patience of a saint (which is proven by the fact he has been married to me for so long).  He has gotten into the big puzzle fairly well and is totally ok with my random interjections of pointless trivia so that is working for us.  Maybe we will get lucky and win the prize...if not at least we had this book to bond over and that itself was worth it.  I give this book 4 out of 10 gold digging aliens and will still pick up the next book, just to hear Hubbin read it out loud.
How do you rate a book that is more then a book?  Do you like it when people read out loud to you?  Are you Batman?

Quirky Or Weird...Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Finished a book recommended to me by a friend the other day.  The book means a lot to her and so I read it with her in mind, I have to say she has wonderful taste in books :-) (love you little redhat).  The book is called The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, who later wrote it into a movie by the same name.  It was a lot different then what I was expecting (in a good way) and I am glad I read it.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is written as letter by the main character Charlie to an unknown correspondent.  It covers his life from the end of middle school into his second year or so of high school (apx ages 12-15ish).  He tells his unknown correspondent that he is using an alias and that he has changed the names of people because he wants to protect his anonymity and just needs somebody to listen to him.  He never gives geographical locations or addresses so the unknown correspondent can never respond back. Charlie tells us of two instances in his past that have very much affected his present, the suicide of his friend Michael, who was one of Charlies only friends.  The other is the death of his beloved aunt Helen when he was younger.  These two occurrences figure heavily into Charlies thought pattern through out the book.   As the book progresses we learn about Charlie and how he see's the world.  He is a bit odd and quirky if you understand that stuff, but comes across as weird to outsiders.  He is pretty much friendless as he starts high school, but is taken under his English teachers wing when his love of books comes to light.  His teacher gives him many books to read and encourages him to participate in life instead of just observe it.  Charlie becomes friends with Sam and Patrick, step-siblings who are seniors in high school.  Charlie is instantly smitten with Sam, but she gently sets him down.  Patrick is gay and is secretly dating the star football quarter back.  We watch as Charlie finds his place among the special group, all the while trying to figure himself out.  Several incidents happen both good and bad and Charlie learns more about himself, his friends, his family and society in general.  Through out the book Charlie battles what I can only call depressive episodes, he has a history of needing help from mental professionals and knows when he is slipping.  Near the end of the book, after most of his friends graduate, leaving him feeling alone, he has a pretty sever episode that lands him in the hospital.  Here we learn that his beloved aunt Helen had actually sexually abused him as a young boy and he has been repressing the memory ever since.  It is not clear if this is what caused the depression, or if he already had some issues and this just made it worse.  In the end his family and friends are all there for him, making him believe he can continue on.

This book is set in 1991, which gives it a bit of a nostalgic feel for me, and must seem odd to some of the younger people reading it today.  I think this works because it adds to the main characters feelings of isolation, when the only way to reach somebody is on a land line phone, a letter, or in person, you tend to feel much more of an absence when people you love are gone.  In this world of 24/7 connected communication I think we forget that it wasn't always like this.  Not that a person cannot feel alone today, it is just a different type of alone.  I enjoyed this book for the most part.  It had a cast of characters that I would have probably hung out with if I went to that school, which makes it very easy for me to identify with...even if I haven't been a teenager in a really long time :-)  I like that the book was about a bunch of non-conformist kids, not bad kids, not popular kids, not delinquent kids, just different kids who thought in a different way.  This book resonates with me because I was one of those different kids in school.  I am lucky and usually had a group of friends who if not as different as I was, were more then willing to go along with my weirdness, or quirkiness, or psychosis, or whatever it is you want to call it.  In this book The Rocky Horror Picture Show  (which I love, but my Hubbin hates) becomes the place/show that this group of kids can form around, which again I identify with completely, instead of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, my

friends and I all had a thing for various plays and musicals to center ourselves around.  I know that several times this book has been under fire for its portrayal of sex, alcohol and drugs, but I thought they were fairly accurately portrayed, in there use and in the consequences of doing/using all three.  I know sometimes as adults we want to pretend that only the really bad kids do any of that stuff, but the reality of it good, bad or otherwise is that way more kids use all three to varying degrees then we might think, and in some ways a book like this needs to have them in it to come across as genuine and honest.  In regards to Charlie, I sometimes felt he came across a lot younger then he his actual age.  Acting more like a 9-10 year old then a 14-15 year old boy.  Again, not sure if this was some sort of mental thing, or just his personality.  I liked that while he had issues, and he was a "wall-flower" that he did find his own brand of happiness, that he found other people who understood that listening to a certain song at a certain time can make one feel infinite.  I liked that through all of the weirdness and issues of being a teenager that he always had hope, always found a way to find like minded people.  This book could have gotten very dark, and in parts it does take a somber turn, but for the most part I felt like it was a book telling all of us weird kids that it was ok, that there are other weird people out there, and there are good times to be had.  In regards to my friend who loaned it to me, I think I was reading this through her eyes a bit as well, which in this case added in even cooler dimension as I felt like I was reading it as two people and was able to get even more out of the book then if I was just reading it through my own perspective.  I am now excited to see the movie, even though I'm not 100% sure how they are going to portray it on film, but I have heard good things about it.  I recommend this book for anybody who was the weird kid in school, who knows that being different can be hard, but not necessarily bad, or is nostalgic for walking down the school halls without a cell phone in your back pocket.  I give this book 8 out of 10 Transexuals from Transexualvania.

What book reminds you most of high school/middle school?  What kind of kid were/are you?  Am I using a lot of / today?